The NGO Game

In most post-conflict countries nongovernmental organizations are everywhere, but their presence is misunderstood. In The NGO Game Patrice McMahon investigates the unintended outcomes of what she calls the NGO boom in Bosnia and Kosovo. Using her years of fieldwork and interviews, McMahon argues that when international actors try to rebuild and reconstruct post-conflict countries, they often rely on and look to NGOs. Although policymakers and scholars tend to accept and even celebrate NGO involvement in post-conflict and transitioning countries, they rarely examine why NGOs have become so popular, what NGOs do, or how they affect everyday life.

After a conflict, international NGOs descend on a country, local NGOs pop up everywhere, and money and energy flow into strengthening the organizations. In time, the frenzy of activity slows, the internationals go home, local groups disappear from sight, and the NGO boom goes bust. Instead of peace and stability, the embrace of NGOs and the enthusiasm for international peacebuilding turns to disappointment, if not cynicism. For many in the Balkans and other post-conflict environments, NGOs are not an aid to building a lasting peace but are part of the problem because of the turmoil they foster during their life cycles in a given country. The NGO Game will be useful to practitioners and policymakers interested in improving peacebuilding, the role of NGOs in peace and development, and the sustainability of local initiatives in post-conflict countries.

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Booms and Busts in Peacebuilding

1. Uncertain Times

2. Of Power and Promises

3. Bosnia: Much Ado about NGOs

4. Kosovo: Copy, Paste, and Delete

Conclusion: The End of a Golden Era

Notes

References

Index

The NGO Game

"The NGO Game is a major contribution to our understanding of post-conflict interventions, democratization, and peacebuilding, as well as the specific cases of Bosnia and Kosovo. Patrice C. McMahon looks beyond what international NGOs and peacebuilding efforts claim to accomplish to get at what is actually happening on the ground. Her work shows us how and why these efforts fail by exploring in detail the activities of international NGOs, the resulting responses on the part of local societies and local NGOs, and the consequences of those actions. "—V. P. Gagnon, Ithaca College, author of The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s

The NGO Game

"Patrice McMahon has written a spectacular book, taking the reader behind the scenes in the world of NGOs. Based on extensive fieldwork in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, McMahon shows how foreign funders came to these post-conflict zones thinking that they knew better than locals what would be most helpful in these societies, and proceeded to pump money into NGOs, mostly newly created, which were prepared to do the funders' bidding. Because they largely ignored local priorities and, moreover

, constantly shifted their own priorities, the funders actually had a negative impact both in Bosnia and, more particularly, in Kosovo, where they succeeded in undermining the nascent NGO sector. Anyone interested in post-conflict peace-building and efforts at democratization, especially in the context of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, will be richly rewarded by this fascinating study."—Sabrina P. Ramet, author of The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918-2005

The NGO Game

"The NGO Game provides a well-grounded and compelling argument. Patrice McMahon uses her deep knowledge of the Balkans to show how the NGO boom created during post-conflict interventions ironically distorts local civil society in ways that undermine and weaken indigenous groups. The book offers important lessons for students, scholars, and practitioners of civil society and peacebuilding."—Paula M. Pickering, Associate Professor, Department of Government, College of William & Mary